There is no justification here, no time traveling armies. Phil wanted to play Anglo Irish as preparation for NJ Con on Saturday and ran down his list possible opponents. When he got to Indians, Bruce stopped him with a question, "Indians, like with elephants?" "Yes, lots of elephants, some of the best in the game."

The Board:The Anglo Irish won the initiative roll and decided to attack the in the mountains. The board looks good for the Anglo-Irish. A nice hill to hold the left flank, and a forest on the right to prevent a flank march. The impassable, however was right in the Indian center. The Irish used their terrain adjustment roll to move that forest off the edge in their opponents side to their side, but 3 IU's in. No one is going to go through that gap, right?

Deployment:The deployment seemed seemed fairly standard. Indian Elephants and bowmen in the center, well screened by Light Infantry. To their right was 5 units of MI bow and 2HW. On the Indian left was a force of Heavy Chariots supported by Medium Cavalry and Light Foot.

The Anglo-Irish line was stretched longer than the Indian line. The Indians force of 5 MI faced a force 3 Javelinmen, 3 Longbow, and a Galloglaich(elite HI 2 Handed Swordsmen). The Elephants were facing 4 Galloglaich and 3 Longbow. On the Anglo-Irish right, facing the Chariots was a hodgepodge force of 2 Knights, 2 Heavy Cavalry, 2 Light Cavalry and a Light Foot in ambush.

Turn 1:

The Indians start with normal moving out of their center and right battles, but their left battle diverges left and runs for the gap between the woods and the edge of the board. The gap was just over 3 IU wide, but was little wider because of a road that ran through it.

The Indian center and right flank forces move out.

Bowmen forward, with chariots racing for the gap.

The long view down Anglo-Irish line.

Steady men.

The Indian center stops outside of longbow range.

Well out of range and daring the bowmen to leave their fortifications.

This is a poor picture. The Knights decide that they would pick on the Indian's Bowmen's flank, but took a cohesion hit instead. The remaining portion of the Irish Heavy Cavalry decide to block the gap.

Off panel, on the far left, the Irish Javelinmen cross the hill, in an effort to flank the Indian right flank.

Turn 2:
The Indian plan becomes apparent. They are not going to charge the forts, but force the Anglo-Irish right flank. Their Heavy Chariots fill the gap, while their Light Infantry trip the ambush, revealing a single Kern (Light Foot Javelin)

The Indians turn their right flank to face the flanking Javelinmen.

The Anglo-Irish respond to this tactic by...

Rolling a one, so the flank march on the left just seized up.

The center battle also rolls a 1, but Larry is Brilliant, and so still gets to do two things. He sends off his spare Kern to assist the ambush in the woods, and moves his Longbow forward to trade shots with the Indian bowmen.

And the right flank, Darryl also gets a single command point. he will use it to rally his Knights.

Turn 3:

The missile exchange did not go well for the Anglo-Irish. In their turn, they will retreat behind the fortifications.

The Indians take some damage, but will spend their command points rallying the troops. They do not intend to go anywhere till the gap is pushed, and so have command points to spare.

The Light Horse challenges the Heavy Chariots, causing a hit. However, the Kerns in the woods have lost their fight and were destroyed. The Kern in the picture is from the center battle, and arriving just in time to keep the fight in the woods active.

Turn 4:

On the Anglo-Irish left, the command points still are averaging 1.1 something. But enough to advance the Longbow and start another missile barrage. But not enough to push the Javelinmen on their flank attack.

This missile exchange is looking much more favorable.

On the Anglo-Irish right flank, of which there is no picture, the Anglo-Irish Light Horse are run off by Indian Medium Cavalry.

Turn 5:

The right flank is heating up. The Heavy Chariots have the overlap, but their right side Chariot had to enter the woods to get there. So the fight is fairly even. Darryl is having problems with his command points, or his Knights would have started joining this fight.

Oh yes, I forgot I had brought the people-pizzas to this party. The dead are two Light Foot units, one Indian, one Kern.

On the Anglo Irish left flank, the missile exchange is starting to turn against the Dubliners. Darryl's command points are not enough to rally the troops. While the Irish Javelinmen, off panel to the left, haven't moved for 4 turns.

Turn 6:
The Indians have shown a lot of patience so far, confident their 3 elite Heavy Chariots, which count as knights, will push Anglo-Irish nobles, Heavy Cavalry with no specials, from the gap, turning the flank. But the Cavalry is fighting them tooth and nail.

Sorry for the bad picture. All the chariots have cohesion hits. Kerns are supporting the left flank of the line. Indian Medium Cavalry and Irish Light Cavalry are extending the right flank.

Suddenly it all gives way. An Indian Chariot looses to a 6-1 die roll and an Indian Medium Cavalry loses to a Light Horse. But the Kens in the woods was destroyed as well, and an Irish Light Horse as well.

On the opposite flank, the Longbow have a unit destroyed by accurate Indian bow fire.

Turn 7:

The Indian Chariots turn the flank. The beginning of the end for the Irish Noblemen.

Turn 8:

In a surprise die roll, Darryl gets two command points! A total of 10 in 8 turns. The Javelinmen pursue the flank once more, but the Indians have long since anticipated them.

We
have 3 Indian units, a Heavy Chariot, a Medium Cavalry and a Light
Foot, facing an Irish Light Horse and a Knight. The flank still holds.

All the Longbow on the Irish left are gone.

The Indian attempt to force their left flank was a Pyrrhic victory at best, but their shootout with the long bow was very favorable. So the elephants go in! Having a flank support and the Impact with elite Elephants was more than the elite Galloglaich could handle. The dice broke pretty much average and the Heavy Infantry Swordsmen degraded and started to break on the following turn.

During the Scrum, an Anglo Irish Knight takes a flank of an Indian bow. Destroying it, and the subsequent rout destroyed a second bow, and damaged the Medium Swordsmen.

So the Anglo-Irish went out on a high note, but it wasn't enough as they lose this fight 22-17.

So what went wrong?
The first problem was in the Anglo-Irish list itself. The two generals Darryl and Darryl were Ordinary. And they paid for that in spades. Larry was Brilliant, but often had nothing to do with his surplus points. This led to an aborted flank attack by the Javelinmen on the left, and the Knights pretty much sitting this game out on the right.

The second was the decision to cone down the center of the board by moving the woods a bit. This created the gap that the Indians exploited so well. While that did not go as planned, it did kill a lot of Anglo-Irish units, and by being patient in the center set up the fight that was largely and arrow storm that the Anglo-Irish lost badly.

So strategically the Anglo-Irish started with a bad disadvantage. And the Indian players did a good job of exploiting it. Truth be told, the Indian generalship was superb. They made one tactical error, which only cost them an immediate victory. But overall they consistently outplayed the Anglo-Irish.

Tactically, the Anglo-Irish made mistakes as well. Bringing forward their longbow out of their forts to shoot it out. This was really a 50/50 proposition. On the right, Larry was able to pull back and regroup them in time for the final fight, but Darryl was to starved for command points to rally the constantly damaged Longbow, and in the end lost them all.

There is a saying, admittedly I got it from a cartoon. There is a thousand lessons in defeat, and none in victory. This was a great prep game for me, as 3 days later, I took the Anglo-Irish to win the NJ Con tournament.